Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects

Collaboration forms the backbone of program alliances, with the ‘pain-gain share’ regime acting as an incentive to engender behaviours that foster teamwork and trusting relationships to flourish. While dialogue within and between parties in a program alliance has been identified as key to establishi...

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Main Authors: Walker, D.H.T., Love, Peter, Matthews, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2023
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP130103018
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93005
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author Walker, D.H.T.
Love, Peter
Matthews, J.
author_facet Walker, D.H.T.
Love, Peter
Matthews, J.
author_sort Walker, D.H.T.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Collaboration forms the backbone of program alliances, with the ‘pain-gain share’ regime acting as an incentive to engender behaviours that foster teamwork and trusting relationships to flourish. While dialogue within and between parties in a program alliance has been identified as key to establishing collaboration and trust, there is limited understanding of how it is engendered and maintained to ensure the delivery of superior project outcomes. In filling this void, our paper aims to address the following research question: How does the value of dialogue influence effective collaboration in program alliances? A sense-making lens is adopted to garner an understanding of the value of effective dialogue in two program alliance infrastructure projects. The value and power of dialogue are examined by addressing a recurring problem that negatively impacted the performance of the alliances and their projects: rework. We show that effective dialogue mitigated rework as participants had a shared purpose. Enacting dialogue helped shape the program alliances’ culture and foster an environment where people felt safe to ‘speak up’. This paper’s contributions are 2-fold as we: (1) unearth new value-laden principles to support dialogue in program alliances; and (2) provide empirical evidence for practitioners to help them understand the value of dialogue in delivering a program of infrastructure projects using an alliance delivery strategy.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-930052023-09-06T00:14:28Z Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects Walker, D.H.T. Love, Peter Matthews, J. Collaboration forms the backbone of program alliances, with the ‘pain-gain share’ regime acting as an incentive to engender behaviours that foster teamwork and trusting relationships to flourish. While dialogue within and between parties in a program alliance has been identified as key to establishing collaboration and trust, there is limited understanding of how it is engendered and maintained to ensure the delivery of superior project outcomes. In filling this void, our paper aims to address the following research question: How does the value of dialogue influence effective collaboration in program alliances? A sense-making lens is adopted to garner an understanding of the value of effective dialogue in two program alliance infrastructure projects. The value and power of dialogue are examined by addressing a recurring problem that negatively impacted the performance of the alliances and their projects: rework. We show that effective dialogue mitigated rework as participants had a shared purpose. Enacting dialogue helped shape the program alliances’ culture and foster an environment where people felt safe to ‘speak up’. This paper’s contributions are 2-fold as we: (1) unearth new value-laden principles to support dialogue in program alliances; and (2) provide empirical evidence for practitioners to help them understand the value of dialogue in delivering a program of infrastructure projects using an alliance delivery strategy. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93005 10.1080/09537287.2023.2202631 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP130103018 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP210101281 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Walker, D.H.T.
Love, Peter
Matthews, J.
Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title_full Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title_fullStr Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title_full_unstemmed Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title_short Generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
title_sort generating value in program alliances: the value of dialogue in large-scale infrastructure projects
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP130103018
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP130103018
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93005